Stir Crazy
by Cmdr. Gen. Marasco
Summary: More Alek/Deryn fluff, originally for a DA fic contest. Its Christmas, and Alek, stuck inside an apparment by a snow storm, is slowly going crazy with cabin fever. Thankfully, Deryn's got a plan to get him out of his funk...


Stir Crazy

Alek was slowly going insane.

It had now been almost a full week since he'd been outside, and the snow that had trapped him in the small apartment in the burroughs of London that he shared with Deryn, two other female boffin's assistants, and four American "doughboys" still refused to stop. It seemed, since he'd last checked three hours ago, that there was even _more_ of the stuff piled up outside the door, making it even more impassible than it was before.

Currently, Alek was angrily prowling the living room in his pajamas, practically wearing a hole in the thread-bear carpet thrown haphazardly on the floor. Though it certainly sounded cliché, he honestly felt like the walls were closing in on him, and he hadn't been able to sleep.

In all honesty, the situation wasn't really that bad. The apartment was warm (thanks to some form of bacterial heaters, according to Deryn) and they had plenty of food (as the Yanks were gladly sharing their rather ridiculous amount of rations with the rest of their roommates).

But the size of the apartment had gotten very dull very fast, and Alek had found that he have very little in common with anyone except Deryn. The other two assistants spent most of their time to themselves and/or chatting up the Americans, and the Americans themselves didn't particularly like a "dirty machine-loving Clanker" being in the same building as them, and stayed away from him as much as possible.

Now, normally, he wouldn't have minded. Being trapped in a snow-bound building with Deryn had a sort of..._romantic_ ring to it.

Except it was kind of hard to have romantic moments with someone when you were sharing three bedrooms, a living room/dining room/kitchen and a bathroom with six other people, even if they all knew you were in a relationship.

Admittedly, they'd tried. But they'd never been able to get more than a quick kiss in before someone interrupted them. Which, unfortunately, did nothing to improve the feeling of entrapment that had been slowly building in Alek's mind and (if anything) added fuel to the small fire that seemed to be forever burning in his guts.

And then there was the strange...distantness that had settled over Deryn recently. Alek wasn't sure where it had come from, or when it first come to light. But in the last couple days, he had noticed the girl seemed to be avoiding him. As much as she could, current circumstances given. And there was that strange, guilty look in her eyes whenever he ran into her coming out of her room, like she was hiding something...

He'd pointed it out to her, of course, but she'd quickly shrug it off and change subjects whenever he did.

Alek paused in his movements as a sudden realization came to him. Cold gripped his heart in the same way it was currently gripping the window, making it opaque and dulling the light from the worm-lamp outside. The sun had gone down hours ago. It was probably close to midnight.

She couldn't...could she? No, she wasn't that kind of girl, Alek thought to himself, resuming his pacing. But maybe...no. He was dead sure of it. There was no way Deryn was being unfaithful to him.

But, then again, to be unfaithful you had to be faithful to something in the first place, right? Was it cheating if there wasn't anything to cheat on? They weren't officially in a relationship...were they? They'd kissed, certainly, but nothing more. Was kissing a marker for commitment?

With a grunt of frustration, Alek threw himself down onto the couch in the middle of the living room, eliciting an impressive wheeze from the well-used piece of furniture. He threw his arm over his face in an attempt to stop the sudden spin of the room.

"God's wounds, Deryn." He groaned, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "What are you hiding from me?"

"Oh, nothing..." Came a voice from behind the couch.

Alek was so startled he literally flew up and off the cushions and onto the floor.

"Deryn!" He howled, recognizing the voice. He rose to his feet and looked around sharply, not sure if he was feeling angry or pleased to hear the girl again.

"Aye, tis me." The voice again came from behind the couch. Alek climbed onto the cushions and looked over the back.

Laying on the floor, quite calm and content, was Deryn. She was wearing a night gown (the whole group had forgone day clothing in favor of their sleep wear several days earlier) and obviously quite pleased with herself, judging by the grin she wore.

Alek felt a sudden urge to both throttle the girl and kiss her until she blacked out.

"What the hell are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?" Alek asked, covering his confusion with defiance.

"If that's your funny Clanker way of saying "surprise you", then yes." Deryn replied. She lifted herself from the floor, grin still in place. Alek resisted the urge to help her up, though it wasn't a major insult as she obviously didn't need any help in the first place.

"And why have you been avoiding me?" He pressed. "What the hell have you been doing?"

"Uh...making this?" Deryn reached into her gown pocket and pulled out a small, wrapped packaged. She handed it to Alek, who examined it. It was a lumpy thing, swaddled in brown paper.

"What is it?" He asked, confused both by the thing and the sudden turn of Deryn's actions.

"It's you're present, _Dummkopf_!" Deryn laughed, a sound that actually managed to get Alek to smile. "Don't you know what today is?"

Alek stared down at the package, and some random information clicked in him mind.

"It's Christmas morning, isn't it." He stated quietly.

"It's barking Christm-" Deryn began, but she cut herself off when she realized Alek had just said the same thing. "Er, aye, it's Christmas. Frohe Weihnachten, Alek."

For the last part, she switched to German.

Alek smiled again, all the worry and confusion and strange feelings from earlier dropping away. With a renewed sense of joy, he tore open his gift.

Into his outstretched hand fell a tiny metal walker. He looked it over, and quickly recognized a Cyclop Stormwalker.

He realized what it was; included in the American's container of supplies were identification models of every major Clanker walker known. The same models that they had used as target practice days earlier in an attempt to relieve the boredom of their predicament.

Deryn must have retrieved the model from wherever it had ended up and fixed whatever what broken. Now that he looked closer, Alek could see how some of the parts were slightly dented, and the right leg was slightly wobbly.

And it meant that everything he'd been fearing was wrong. He absolutely loved it.

"So, what do you-" Deryn began.

Alek didn't give her the time to finish. Quickly, he pulled her close and kissed her deeply. She kissed back, and they held each other for a moment, before Deryn pulled back, eyes glazed.

"Its wonderful." Alek added, feeling slightly giddy himself. "Just like you. I'll hold onto it forever."

"Aye." Deryn replied softly. "Well, Happy Christmas, Alek."

"Happy Christmas to you too, Deryn."


End file.
